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DRAFT Collaborative Learning in Classroom Project Proposal Team Description: [Team Members]
Content: 1. Statement of Problem 1.1.Traditional education within undergraduate college level courses is usually centered around lecture-based teaching methods, where information is presented by the teacher to the students, and collaboration and interaction between the teacher and students during class-time is fairly restricted. Most traditional lecture-style classes neither allow for students to be more actively engaged in discussing or understanding the topic during class time nor allow for explicitly gauging students’ level of interest in the topics taught during class time. Certain technological feedback systems, such as the "Clicker", "ClassTalk", and (insert names of other systems studied) systems, attempt to facilitate a greater amount of in-class interaction between the teacher and students than provided by traditional education (5.2, 5.3). Inspired by the use of these in-class feedback systems, for our Semester Project, we designed and implemented a web-based feedback tool that allows students to provide feedback and post inquiries during class time without interrupting the lecture flow. Unlike the "Clicker" and "Class-Talk" systems where feedback is teacher-initiated, our web-based system allows both students and teachers to initiate opportunities for feedback and interaction. Students can submit their answers to multiple choice questions posted by the teacher and can also post their own inquiries using the system at any time during the class. Additionally, unlike the existing feedback systems, our system is extensible and end-user modifiable, where teachers can modify or add feedback options and multiple choice questions. Creating this expanded window of interaction between the teacher and student will help further empower the students to provide information and comments that will help the teacher to modify their teaching style to better suit the students' learning needs. 2. Rationale 2.1. Per our previous class experiences, we believe that asking questions and getting immediate feedback from instructors helped us more than we expected. Students learn more easily and produce better results with effective collaboration in class. However, collaboration in larger classes can be difficult because the lecture becomes the primary focus in this setting. As noted above, existing systems such as the “Clicker” and “ClassTalk” attempted to facilitate greater interaction between teachers and students during class. The "Clicker" system allows the teacher to post questions related to the topic being discussed and students to register their responses by using the answer options on their "clickers". The teacher can then view statistics on the responses entered by the students relative to the correct answers. In this manner, students are given the opportunity of discussing answers and posting their responses to the teacher, while the teacher is given information on how well the students are answering the questions. The "ClassTalk" system allows students to give their feedback to the teacher regarding the pace of the course. In both these systems, the teacher initiates the opportunities for feedback by posting questions or requesting student responses during a certain time interval in class (5.2, 5.3). 4. For implementation Projects: 4.1. Technical approach: We implemented the system as a web service because we realized that the Internet is widely available today and given this access to the internet, no additional software would have to be installed in order for users to use this service. If implemented as a web service, the system can be accessible to users through laptops or PDAs with wireless connections, which are future extension we envision for this system. We used Apache Tomcat as web server, MySQL for data storage, JSP (Java Server Pages) for web page implementation and Eclipse as our IDE. Of these, Java Server Pages is a simple, efficient technology for the creation of dynamic web content, and allows for accessing and dynamically displaying information in a backend database. Additionally, both JSP and MySQL are platform and server-independent, allowing for our system to be easily transferable to other platforms and servers. We took advantage of Jakarta Struts, a framework, which makes the Model-View-Controller design paradigm much easier to use. We chose these technologies because: (1) it is very easy to write extensible and readable code with them and (2) these technologies are popular open-source technologies and therefore easily obtainable. 4.2 Description of System: The system supports both teachers and students, providing both sets of users with different interfaces suited to their needs. After logging into the system, the instructor can create and maintain student accounts, add, modify, and remove multiple choice questions, answer and delete inquiries, edit or add feedback options (e.g. “Too Fast” or “Too Slow” to indicate the teacher is moving too fast or too slow when covering material during class), and view statistics regarding students’ answers to multiple choice questions. After logging into the system using their logins and passwords, the students can answer multiple choice questions posted by the instructor, post inquiries to be answered by the instructor, post their feedback using the available feedback options, and add their vote to other posted inquiries they would like answered by the instructor. “FEEL” is an example of a dynamic web-based database driven application, where information is stored in the database and is accessed and modified by users through their interaction with the provided web interface to the system. For example, when an instructor defines a multiple choice question, which includes the question definition, the available answers, and the correct answer option, this information is stored in the database. When the student logs in to their interface, the information for the multiple choice questions is retrieved from the database and displayed to the student. JSP (Java Server Pages) enables this connection to the database and subsequent retrieval and “dynamic” display of information through the creation of the HTML page which is finally viewed by the student. Thus, as the information is modified or updated by the instructor, the students are able to view the updated multiple choice questions. Similarly, when the students enter their answers to the multiple choice questions, their answers along with information on which students answered which questions is stored in the database. When the instructors use the instructor interface to access statistics on student answers to multiple choice questions, JSP enables another connection to the database, retrieves the relevant information regarding student answers, calculates the required statistics, and displays these statistics in the formats available. The backend database, implemented in MySQL, is used to store both the information needed by “FEEL” as well as the links between different pieces of information. For example, the database stores not only which answers were submitted to multiple choice questions but by whom, linking answers to students. Furthermore, the database is also used to store which students posted which inquiries and when and which students added their votes to inquiries. This information can then be employed within the JSP pages to ensure that when students use the “FEEL” student interface to vote, they cannot vote twice. 4.3. Description of the System Behavior: 4.3.1. User Accounts: Instructor and Student. The instructor accounts are created at system setup. The instructors can then login and create accounts for students. Both students and instructors must login in order to access the student and instructor interfaces respectively. 4.3.2. Instructor Interface and Functionality Once the instructor’s login and password has been verified, “FEEL” displays the instructor interface which allows instructors to click on different links to access different functions and view statistics. Using “FEEL”, instructors can choose to:
4.3.3. Student Interface and Functionality Once the student login and password have been verified, the student can then access the links that allow them to answer multiple choice questions, click on the feedback options, or answer multiple choice questions. Using the “FEEL” student interface, students can: • Answer Multiple Choice Questions. After selecting a multiple choice question from a drop-down list of all currently defined multiple choice questions, the student is then taken to a page displaying that multiple choice question and allowing the student to submit their response to the question. • Post and Vote on Student Inquiries. Students can access the inquiries page, enter text for their inquiry, and submit that inquiry. When first submitted, an inquiry shows a vote count of zero. Students can also add their vote to an inquiry by clicking on the “Vote” link next to any particular inquiry on the inquiries page. • Click on one of the Feedback Links. On the “Inquiries and Feedback” page, students are provided with the list of available feedback options with their respective counts. They can click on any of these options which will add one count to the sum of counts for that option. 4.3.4. Scenario Prior to class, the instructor has created 3 new multiple choice questions that will be relevant to the course material to be covered during class. Before class has started, the instructor has logged on to the “FEEL” system via the web with the login and password that were provided to her. The instructor clicks on the “Multiple Choice Questions” link which takes her to a page which includes a form for defining a new multiple choice question. The instructor enters the first question, the possible answer options she wishes to include as choices, and she denotes the correct answer option using the drop down list that displays the letters “A” through “E” for the possible options available for any multiple choice question. The instructor submits this new addition and the question is added to the multiple choice questions stored by “FEEL”. She repeats the process for the next two questions. The instructor then remembers a question she had already entered a few weeks ago and realizing that it may be relevant and wishing to modify that question, she returns to the “Multiple Choice Questions” page where she clicks on the “Edit Question” link. A drop-down list with the question definitions for all available multiple choice questions is displayed. Selecting the question she wishes to edit from the list, she is then taken to a page which includes a form whose fields contain the stored definition for the question, possible answers, and correct definition for that question. She rewords the question the way she wants, changes two of the options, selects a different option as the correct answer, and presses submit. Her changes are saved. She logouts of “FEEL”. Immediately before class starts, she logs back into “FEEL” on her laptop in the classroom and selects the “View Feedback and Inquiries” page. She then proceeds to deliver her lecture to the class as she had planned. Meanwhile, different students have logged into the “FEEL” page using their student logins and passwords. After a few minutes, a few proceed to the “Post Inquiries and Feedback” page using the link provided. Two people post inquiries, and others proceed to add their votes to those inquiries. Some students also select the “Too Fast” feedback link. As the instructor proceeds to the end of her first 15-minutes, she pauses for a second as she refreshes the “FEEL” feedback and inquiries page and notices that two inquiries with the status “Waiting” have been added and have 4 and 2 votes respectively and the counts for “Too Fast” have gone up. The inquiries with 4 votes is relevant while the other will be covered later in the class, so she answers the first and clicks on the “Answered” link next to the inquiry. The inquiry status is changed to “Answered” and it moves down the list of inquiries towards the bottom. After proceeding for an additional fifteen minutes, she then instructs the students to answer the first of the questions she had chosen for the in-class multiple choice session. The students click on the “Multiple Choice” link and are taken to the list of drop-down questions from which they select the question the instructor has asked them to choose. Students can choose whether or not to be “anonymous” when they answer the question, which means that although their answers will be stored and reflected in the collective scores, the instructor will not be allowed to see whether that particular student chose a specific answer for this question. The instructor has decided to give 3 minutes for each multiple choice question, and as she was describing which question the students must answer first, she had already clicked on the “Student Answers” link where she can view either individual or collective answers for the multiple choice questions. After 2 minutes, she clicks on the “Individual” Answers link and she sees a grid where half of the students’ names are listed. Each cell is color-coded to correspond to the answer option selected by the students, and the legend is provided. She notes that Eric has selected option B whereas Jennifer has selected option A. Scanning the colors, she notes that many students have picked C. She notes that a few cells are gray, denoting that those students have answered the question but have chosen the “anonymous” option. After 3 minutes, she instructs the students to finish answering the question. She then clicks on the “Collective Answer” link, and is taken to a page displaying the numbers of students who picked each of the available options. She sees that a majority of students picked C, while some picked A and B. The correct option was A. She makes some conclusions regarding the students’ understanding of the topic, noting that there is still some confusion regarding the concepts represented by options C and A. She discusses the question with the class, and also chooses this opportunity to answer the inquiry that had been posted earlier during class. She then goes to the “View Inquiries and Feedback” page where she clicks on the “Answered” link which changes the status of that inquiry to “Answered” and moves that question to the bottom of the list of inquiries. 4.3.5. 4.4. Evaluation of the Program/System: While the system was being designed and implemented, our project team tested various parts of its functionality. At various stages, team members were able to give their feedback regarding the system. At the final testing stage, our team was satisfied with “FEEL” functionality and implementation. We also constructed student evaluation and instructor evaluation exercises to test “FEEL” functionality and conducted these exercises with two students and two instructors. The evaluator from our project team showed a detailed demonstration using the “FEEL” system to the testers. The demo and evaluation exercise for the instructors focused on “FEEL” functionality for instructors using the instructor interface, whereas the demo and exercises for the students focused on functionality for students using the student interface. In addition to viewing testers as they used the system and noting their feedback, the evaluator from our project team also collected comments regarding what testers liked and disliked about the system. The students were able to vote on posted inquiries fairly easily as well as to answer the multiple choice questions without difficulty. For the two students chosen for the exercise, “FEEL” was unable to allow them to post inquiries although this functionality was tested by our project team successfully. Also, one student was unable to click one of the feedback options without logging in using a different id. The students both made positive comments regarding “FEEL”, noting that it would be useful to post inquiries without disrupting class and that it would be helpful to use “FEEL” within their classes. One of the students noted that “FEEL” could be disruptive if students were allowed to post irrelevant queries, while the other noted that “FEEL” would not disrupt class if students were paying attention. The instructor was able to go through his exercise without any difficulty, and “FEEL” performed correctly for the addition of feedback options by the instructor, the addition of a new multiple choice question, the viewing of student answers to a selected multiple choice question, and the viewing and answering of student inquiries by the instructor. The instructor particularly liked the ability to view results to multiple choice quizzes instantaneously during class and thus to assess whether the material was being understood by the students. 4.5. Potential Further Developments of “FEEL”: A wide variety of technologies can enhance classroom collaboration. The system implements various technologies for enhancing the interaction between teachers and students, with an emphasis on technologies that allow students to be more active in giving feedback to the teacher. Although the functions of this system are limited, the system itself is very generic and provides a good foundation for future extension. Some future works we are envisioning include: • PDA access to the system • In addition to allowing instructors to set student accounts, students will be allowed to change their own passwords. • In addition to simply answering inquiries during class, teachers can post their replies to student-posted inquiries. This addition will help students and instructors create a list of inquiries and answers similar to the “FAQs” section on some websites, where similar inquiries and answers can be available to students and instructors in different classes over different time periods. • Lesson plan specification: a teacher can specify a lesson plan, which is a schedule of a set of topics a teacher covers during a lecture. • Student profile creation: by linking feedback with the particular topic when this feedback is given, we can create a profile for each student. • Student-to-student collaboration promotion: utilizing information contained in student profiles, system can promote various forms of collaboration, e.g. putting students who have difficulty with a same topic together for a group study. • Monitoring of feedback over time: system displays how a student’s or all students’ feedback change over time, either within a lecture or cross-lecture. • System customization and extension: system provides functions that allow a user to modify the system, e.g. a teacher can add a new button. 5. References: 5.1. http://jakarta.apache.org/ (Apache Server Reference) 5.2. http://www.h-itt.com/ (Clickers, current system) 5.3. http://www.bedu.com (ClassTalk, current system) 5.4. Bennis, W. and Biederman, P. W., (1997) Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA. 5.5. Cooper, J., Robinson, P., "Getting Started: Informal Small- Group Strategies in Large Classes" 5.6. Cooper, J., Robinson, P., The Argument for Making Large Classes Seem Small, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/101523944/PDFSTART 5.7. Coutin, Susan, "Tips Gleaned from the Literature on Collaborative Learning", http://www.writing.uci.edu/coutin.pdf 5.8. Drury, H., Kay J., and Losberg, W., "Student Satisfaction with groupwork in undergraduate computer science: do things get better?" 5.9. Dugan, Robert Jr., Breimer, Eric A., Lim, Darren T., Glinert, Ephraim P., Goldberg, Mark K., Champagne Matthew V., "Exploring Collaborative Learning in Rensselaer's Classroom-in-the-Round",http://www.cs.rpi.edu/tr/98-1.pdf 5.10. George, Pamela G., "Using Cooperative Learning in the College Classroom" The NEA Higher Education Journal 5.11. "In defense of cheating", www.jndi.org 5.12. Joseph, A., and Payne, M., "Group Dynamics and Collaborative Group Performance" 5.13. LeJeune, N., "Critical Components for Successful Collaborative Learning in CS1" 5.14. Scharffe, Eric. "Applying Open Source Principles to Collaborative Learning Environments", http://newmedia.colorado.edu/cscl/61.pdf 5.15. Smith, Barbara Leigh and Jean T. MacGregor., "What is Collaborative Learning?", http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf 5.16. Smith, Karl A., "Going Deeper: Formal Small-Group Learning in Large Classes" 5.17. Smith, Karl A., "Inquiry-Based Collaborative Learning", http://www.nciia.org/proceed_01/Smith%20handouts.pdf |
